This World Is Beautiful
by KimchiGirl
Summary: (because of the traces you leave behind). Time-travel AU. Formerly "Rewind"


**A/N: ****I decided to rewrite Rewind, even though there are only two chapters. I think it'll flow smoother this way. Hope y'all like it! Review/Favorite/Follow is love 3 **

**-KimchiGirl**

* * *

_"Even if I am reborn a million times, it won't be like this world where you exist. This world is beautiful because of all the traces you leave behind…Today is the last day we will be standing under the same sky…" _

–an English translation of "Did You Know" by Davichi

* * *

He had kept them alive. He had kept them alive. He had kept them _alive_.

Team Seven, the rest of rookie nine and Gai's team.

He had kept them _ALIVE_.

To make them all suffer from their grief? To tell them how worthless their efforts were? They didn't need this to know; no, it was when Madara ripped Kakashi—their _sensei_, their _teammate_—apart when he tried to protect Naruto.

The buildings reduced to ashes and dust.

The red-painted skies clouded with smoke from the fires.

Naught a soul was left.

Konoha was gone.

Gone. _Gone. GONE. __**GONE. **_

Naruto wanted to rip Madara apart, limb by limb.

In seconds, Madara had demolished Konoha. In seconds, Naruto's precious people had died. In seconds, his soul died with them.

Neji leant against a quiet Lee and Tenten, sporting a broken ankle. Shikamaru blankly stared into the distance, taking long, hard drags on his cigarette. Ino and Choji stood silently at his side. Hinata wearily supported a tired Kiba and Shino stood stiffly, a deep frown settling on his brow.

And Naruto? He felt like a failure. He, the Rokudaime, the so-called "Savior of Konoha," he hadn't saved _anything, anyone. _He slumped to the ground on his knees that could no longer support him, defeat instantly sapping his seemingly-endless strength. The blonde buried his grief-stricken face in his dirty, worn hands.

"It's my fault." He whispered, too traumatized to cry.

"All my fault." Faces flashed through his memory. All of them seemed to cry out to him. _Why didn't you save us?_

Sakura knelt down and reached out to squeeze his shoulder gently, "No, it isn't." After Tsunade had passed, she took over the hospital. And when Kakashi died…her grief was no hidden secret. Tears ran down unstoppingly her dirt-streaked face.

Sasuke put his hand on his other shoulder, "It isn't." One of his Sharingan had been taken by Madara, though Naruto had interfered long enough for them to get away, before his other Sharingan could be taken. In honor of Kakashi's memory, he had chosen to wear his hitai-ate over the missing eye.

He had come back to Konoha after learning of his brother's true standing. Team Hebi joined Konoha with him, and Sasuke had married Karin right before the start of the Fourth War. And then, she was killed in one of the many battles of the War. He, too, was no stranger to loss.

"It's _our_ fault."

"_Our fault_." The others echoed with dead hearts.

_**Kit**_**.**

'_Go away Kurama. I am not in the mood to talk.' _

_**I have something to show you.**_

Visions of Rikudou Sennin creating a seal. Black ink lines over a large plane of paper.

'_A time-dimension seal with a six-pronged edge and an unfamiliar symbol as the grounding_.' Naruto scrutinized.

_**It is a time-travel seal.**_

'_What? Is there such thing?'_

_**There is. He had created it. Never used it. The kami showed it to him in a dream. Told him that someone would need it someday. **_

'_Do you think that 'someone' is me?'_

_**It's highly possible.**_

'_I…I could try. It's not like we have anything to lose anyhow.' _Naruto thought bitterly.

_**It would need a large amount of chakra. I cannot contribute all the chakra as it could potentially kill you. **_

'_Then, I could ask them to contribute chakra to the seal?' _

'_**Yes. I'm not sure if it would bring them along through the dimension**_**." **

'_It's worth a try. To get our precious ones back.' _

Naruto lifted his head, and spoke, "Kurama just told me something, a way to fix everything." Potentially. He mentally added.

All eyes whipped to him.

"If I can borrow some of your chakra, I can activate a time-dimension seal that can send me, possibly you, back…before this all happened."

With no hesitation, Kiba stood straighter, still leaning on Hinata, "I will donate my chakra." "And I," Shino murmured. The others all voiced their agreement.

"Very well. We must remain on guard, in case Madara decides to come after us, while I draw the seal." Naruto stated.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they replied.

* * *

It was sundown by the time he had finished drawing the seal into the ground, with his own blood to make it more potent.

"It's ready," he grinned slightly, hope starting to shine on his gloomy countenance.

He called his friends.

"Place your hands all on the circle as if you were going to summon and draw your chakra, I will perform the necessary hand-seals and finish the seal with my chakra," he said.

"And," he murmured. They glanced at him. "For what it's worth," he continued and placed his fist to his heart and declined his head, "it was an honor to be your Hokage. Let it be known that you served me faithfully to the end."

"Save your goodbyes, Hokage-sama," Shikamaru drawled with a glint in his eye, making Naruto's eyes snap to his face, "we will meet on the other side." He pressed his fist to his forehead and to his heart nonetheless. The others followed the action.

Unwaveringly, they placed their hands on the circle, looking to him for the last part.

'_Ready, Kurama?'_

_**Ready when you are, kit. **_

He ran through the hand seals quickly, but precisely. Ram. Snake. Boar. Dragon. Ox. Tiger.

And, with a blast of chakra, he slammed his palm onto the ground and activated the seal.

* * *

Naruto threw on his orange jumpsuit, tightened his hitai-ate and dashed out the door. Today was day they were being assigned teams, one of the only days he decided not to be late.

With no delay, he burst out the door and ran through the streets of Konoha, dodging angry civilians and dashing through alleyways.

He made it to his desk, seconds before Iruka-sensei walked in.

"Naruto-baka, I thought you flunked! You failed the test yesterday! How are you here?" Ino snubbed.

He pointed with a wide grin at his hitai-ate, the one Iruka-sensei had given him, "I passed."

Before she could question him further, Iruka cleared his throat and smiled at them all, "Congratulations, genin of Konoha. Serve your village and Hokage well. These are the assigned teams."

Team One.

Team Two.

Team Three.

Team Four.

Team Five.

Team Six.

Team Seven.

Team Eight.

Team Nine.

Team Ten.

* * *

Sakura mooned over Sasuke as she, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-baka were waiting for their jonin-sensei.

"Argh! What is taking him so long?" Naruto growled after two hours of fidgeting around the classroom. He started setting up the classic chalkboard eraser prank for their tardy teacher.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura hissed. "Do you _want _to set a bad impression on our jonin-sensei?"

"He's the late one," Naruto retorted.

Once it was set, he returned to his seat.

Thirty minutes later, the door slowly started to open.

Three sets of eyes watched the eraser meet silver, gravity-defying hair. One with smug victory, one with horror, and one with indifference.

Hatake Kakashi gave his not-yet genin team one of his infamous eye-smiles. "My first impression is that you're a bunch of idiots. Meet me on the roof." And with that, he poofed off in a shunshin.

* * *

When they finally reached the roof, Kakashi was there, silently waiting.

"I am your jounin instructor, Hatake Kakashi. Introduce yourselves, starting with blondie."

"Ano, sensei, could you introduce yourself first so that we know what to say?" Sakura asked demurely.

The silver-haired man sighed inwardly and started, "My name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and things I hate? I don't feel like telling you. As for my hobbies…I have lots of hobbies. And my dreams for the future? Never really thought about it."

The three genin sweat-dropped. _So, basically, all we learned was his name_.

Naruto spoke up, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen! What I dislike is the three minutes you have to wait for ramen to cook. My hobbies are eating ramen. And my dream is to become the greatest Hokage, dattebayo!"

"Pinkie," Kakashi waved his hand as a signal for her to introduce herself.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. What I like is…" she glances at Sasuke and giggles, "my hobbies are…" again, a glance at Sasuke. "I dislike Naruto-baka! And my dream for the future…" she sighs dreamily while looking at Sasuke.

"Dark and broody, next."

"Uchiha Sasuke. I like almost nothing. I dislike a lot of things. My hobby is training. My dream is to kill a certain someone."

Hatake inwardly groaned. A ramen idiot set on being Hokage, a fangirl idiot who is obsessed with dark and broody, and a traumatized idiot who is homicidal like his family member. Just what the doctor ordered, he rolled his eyes.

"Meet me at seven o'clock tomorrow morning at Training Ground Three. Don't eat breakfast, otherwise you'll throw up." And he shunshined away.

* * *

The moment Kakashi left, the three genin burst into a mix of laughter and tears—even the "oh-so-stoic" Sasuke.

"H-his face!" Sakura choked out in between her giggles.

"I've never realized how much he thought we were annoying when we were younger," Naruto cackled.

"Hn."

Naruto straightened up, a more serious look on his face, "We'll keep him safe this time."

Solemn looks slid onto the other two's faces.

"Without a doubt," Sakura stated grimly.

"Hn."

"Come on teme. Give us something other than your broody answers," Naruto glared.

"Hn."

"Why can't you just—"

"Give it up Naruto. You know he'll just keep on doing it until you get mad."

"Hn."

"Why you—!"

Sakura spent that afternoon trying to keep the blonde and the raven from killing each other.

* * *

Sasuke was the first to show up at the training field the next morning.

He settled against one of the trees until Sakura showed up.

She set on mooning over him again. _Was she really this girly back then?_

He set on avoiding her.

Then, Naruto showed up, and set on mooning over Sakura.

Kakashi arrived three hours later.

* * *

He held up two bells.

Kakashi jingled them with a bland look on his masked face, "You have to get these two bells from me."

"But there are only two bells, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, playing the role she had two decades before.

"That means one of you will have to go home and will never be able to become a ninja again." Kakashi said.

"What?! But that's not fair," Naruto protested, acting his part.

"That's why you have to come at me with the intent to kill," Kakashi eye-smiled.

"Ne, sensei, won't you get hurt though?" Sakura asked.

"Mah, I'll be fine," he said, waving aside the question. He set an alarm clock on a stump and set it to go off at noon. "You have until twelve o'clock to get the bells from me."

"Let's begin."

They tensed, ready to spring away in the event that he would attack them.

Instead, he lazily pulled out an orange book that read _Icha Icha _in the front. And started giggling perversely.

He looked up momentarily to see Sakura glaring at him and Sasuke and Naruto looking away from her.

"Pervert," she hissed.

And with that, she split the ground in two.

_Shit_.


End file.
